Spoiler Was anyone else disappointed with the ref stoppage of the Barao/Faber fight? I think Faber was going to lose anyway but it seemed to me he was still defending himself when the fight was called. I was glad he had a good attitude about it, one of the reason I like him.
Spoiler I'm torn on it. On one hand I don't blane Dean for not spotting the thumb and he's a ref I respect massively for putting the fighters before popularity. That said, I dunno what Faber was supposed to do? The shots were hitting his arms and he WAS defending albeit not aggressively. He was getting dropped anyway though. Maybe he'll keep his hands up from now on.
Apologies Mattt for not using the spoiler so soon after the fight. But if you haven't seen it yet why would you click on the thread?
Spoiler It wasn't the worst stoppage I have seen, but it wasn't the best either. I think it was a bit premature. But how is one supposed to see a thumbs up anyways? Faber should have yelled "I am ok" or something more obvious. What a snoozer night of fights overall. And I have to say this. I never saw Aldo pre UFC. I hear he was awesome. I am not all that impressed by him. He doesn't live up to the hype surrounding him. Sure he has great leg kicks, but he doesn't really go after the win. I don't understand why he is talked about in the p4p greats list. I am not a Barao fan, but he impresses me as a fighter much more than Aldo does.
Spoiler Had to laugh at the snoozer comment. I fell asleep and had to watch the Faber fight again this morning! I agree about Aldo, good but why is he in the p4p greats list? Whatever, I guess it's not the dumbest thing to come out of Rogans mouth!
One should keep in mind that the days of one-trick ponies getting bowled over by well-rounded fighters who've a lot of tricks up their sleeves are over and we are seeing and will continue to see evenly matched, well-trained fighters who aren't necessarily about standing in the pocket and trading. So many have complained about last evening's card, including Dana "Just Bleed" White himself, though, outside of the early stoppage, warn't all that bad and Herb ought to be entitled to a bad call once every few years...
Spoiler See? I wasn't all that impressed by the "just bleed" fight either. It started off with good exchanges and Varner playing an intelligent game. But I was persnally disappointed to see his intelligent game go out the window into a slug fest that cost him the game. At some point, Varner went from good exchanges to dumb slugging it out. That is where it went from a pretty good fight to just ok. It isn't just about finishes either. I am a huge GSP fan. But he had a certain mastery in most of his fights. Sorry, I think Aldo is good, but not masterful like GSP was.
Good point. I do think Herb is a great ref and it has been a few years since Lesner vs Mir at UFC 100!
Spoiler I do feel bad for Faber, omg - his title attempts must be in the double-digits by now and you know, they spend months of 'hard time' training for that event. He handled it very well, but its gotta hurt.
I disagree. Aldo is the man and p4p best imo. He dominates everyone. What was his last close fight? Petitis v aldo ! Bang! Hope this actually happens
The thing is Aldo not looking that impressive is a sign he does deserve to be talked about in p4p. When you can effectively walk through your competition for years then you're a damn good fighter. I agree its not the same as watching the takedown and control marvel of gsp but the fact Aldo doesn't seem to be trying that hard is a sign that he's incredibly good. Plis did anyone catch the bruising on his opponents leg in the corner after round 1? That had to have stung a little. I do agree with the card being lackluster and I'm not normally that easily bored by mma. It all just felt a bit bleh
Aldo isn't "not trying hard", he's pacing himself because he's worried about gassing out as he has in the majority of his fights that have gone five rounds.
Spoiler Pretty meh event I thought. Was expecting serious fireworks from Barao and Aldo and only got a few sparklers. Aldo put some serious combinations together but lacked some urgency for me. Barao looked like he was all guns blazing, in what little there was, but hated him looking at the ref for a stoppage like he'd done enough. It clearly effected Dean. Fighter's should fight and let the ref decide if he wants to stop it or not. Unless the other guy is CLEARLY in danger and they don't wish to do him more damage...in which case stop...disengage...and if the guy can't continue the fight's over anyway. Faber was doing nothing but then Barao's hammer fists weren't doing much either. For me the main blame is with Faber though. He was badly rocked, went flat to the mat (always a bad sign even if it wasn't because he was out) and then tried to do a thumbs up with the hand furthest from Dean and behind Barao's leg. I was impressed with Overeem. His fight IQ seems to have made a massive leap. He was clearly beating Bigfoot and Browne until he got sloppy. Not so here. Even still he's got a troubling tendency to back up with his chin up when pressured but there's no doubt he's a good fighter. I don't think anyone in the HW division can throw knees like he can. The one in the first was a beaut. I think JDS would starch him with his boxing but in bizarre MMAth think Overeem would give Cain plenty of trouble in the clinch.
Its actually one of the problems with packing a card with high level names is everyone expects an amazing card. People might complain about cards with a lot of names they don't know, but you go into it not really expecting much and, I find, enjoy the fights a bit more for it. What happens with Mir now? He's never going to hold a title again (not that there's anything wrong with that) but I used to think of him as the gatekeeper for the top 5 of the division which he clearly can't do anymore. To his credit he recovered when he got rocked and after his last few fights the feeling was that he'd crumble after he got hurt but he's clearly one of the old school of mma. Why on earth he hasn't spent his entire career training wrestling like a beast I'll never know.
Spoiler Aldo basically did what he needed to do: dominated the standup, (laughed when they showed his opponent had landed 30 leg kicks...they really need to look at how they measure effective strikes) got the take downs when he wanted to, controlled the ground up until the last 30 seconds or so, and won hands down . He has gassed a few times in 5 round fights so no need to really go for it when you are picking the guy apart from all angles Felt a little for Faber but he went down hard from that shot and was basically covering up and not doing anything The Rem looked good almost like his old self
Spoiler I thought it was a good card. Alastair has-been Overeem actually showed up for a change and bought himself a few more opportunities to underachieve, Bagautinov is looking better and better all the time, Aldo did what Aldo does and Barao did what Barao does and I'm sorry, but that wasn't a bad stoppage - Faber did nothing for several seconds except cover his head and pray, how long was Herb Dean supposed to let Barao pummel him without any response? I counted 14 hammer fists with Faber doing nothing - that's a stoppage. And who honestly thinks Faber would have made it out of the first round regardless?
It's three days after the fight so I think we can drop the spoilers. 24hrs I think is the MAP rule? Yes but they were nearly all blocked by his shoulder. He was still defending.
being fetaled isn't intelligently defending yourself, he made no attempt to advance his position just curled up and covered up, and the way he went down face first onto the mat didn't look good either
